Essays in Natural History and Agriculture

Essays in Natural History and
Agriculture, by

Thomas Garnett This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no
cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give
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Title: Essays in Natural History and Agriculture
Author: Thomas Garnett
Release Date: May 2, 2006 [EBook #18298]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ESSAYS IN
NATURAL HISTORY ***

Produced by R. L. Garnett

ESSAYS IN NATURAL HISTORY AND AGRICULTURE.
BY THE LATE THOMAS GARNETT, OF LOW MOOR,
CLITHEROE.
LONDON: PRINTED AT THE CHISWICK PRESS. 1883.

CONTENTS.
FACTS AND OBSERVATIONS ON THE SALMON. Introductory
Observations The Salmon enters and ascends Rivers for other purposes
besides Propagation Suggestions for an alteration in the Laws regarding
Salmon Artificial Breeding of Fish Artificial Propagation of Fish
Remarks on a Proposed Bill for the better Preservation of Salmon
LETTERS ON AGRICULTURAL SUBJECTS. On the Cultivation of
Wheat on the same Land in Successive Years The Cultivation of Wheat
On the Gravelling of Clay Soils Cotton
PAPERS ON NATURAL HISTORY. Wrens' Nests The Long-tailed
Titmouse Identity of the Green with the Wood Sandpiper The Stoat
The Marsh Titmouse Creeper Wrens' Nests Alarm-note of one Bird
understood by other Species of Birds Dates of the appearance of some
Spring Birds in 1832, at Clitheroe The Rook Serviceable to
Man.--Prejudice against it Sandpipers On Birds Dressing their Feathers
with Oil from a Gland Mocking powers of the Sedge-warbler The
Water Ouzel Scolopax, Sabines, Sabine's Snipe Fish and other River
Phenomena Lampreys On the Spawning of the Minnow Eels On the
Possibility of Introducing Salmon into New Zealand and Australia On
the Formation of Ice at the bottom of Rivers On the Production of Ice at
the bottoms of Rivers Gossamer
* * * * *
FACTS AND OBSERVATIONS ON THE SALMON.
* * * * *
FACTS AND OBSERVATIONS ON THE SALMON.
In the following observations I intend to offer some remarks on the
various migratory fish of the genus Salmo; and then some facts and
opinions which tend to show the importance of some change in the
laws which are now in force regarding them.

We have first the Salmon; which, in the Ribble, varies in weight from
five to thirty pounds. We never see the fish here before May, and then
very rarely; a few come in June, July, and August if there are high
floods in the river, and about the latter end of September they become
tolerably abundant; as the fisheries near the mouth of the river have
then ceased for the season, and the Salmon run very freely up the river
from that time to the middle or end of December. They begin to spawn
at the latter end of October, but the greater part of those that spawn here
do so in December. I believe nearer the source of the river they are
earlier, but many fish are seen on the spawning beds in January; and I
have even seen a pair so late as March; but this last is of very rare
occurrence.
Some of the male Kipper (Kelts) come down in December and January,
but the greater part of the females remain in the river until April, and
they are occasionally seen herding with shoals of Smolts in May. In
this state they will take a worm very readily, and are, many of them,
caught with the fly in the deeps; but they are unfit to eat, the flesh being
white, loose, and insipid; although they have lost the red dingy
appearance which they had when about to spawn, and are almost as
bright as the fresh fish, their large heads and lank bodies render it
sufficiently easy to distinguish them from fish which are only
ascending the river, even if the latter were plentiful at this season; but
this is unfortunately not the case.
Secondly, we have the Mort. I am not sure whether this fish is what is
called the Grilse in Scotland, or whether it is the Sea Trout of that
country; it is a handsome fish, weighing from one and a half to three
pounds. We first see Morts in June; from that time to the end of
September they are plentiful in favourable seasons in the Hodder, a
tributary stream of the Ribble, although they are never very numerous
in the Ribble above the mouth of that stream. It is the opinion of the
fishermen here that this is a distinct species; my own opinion is, that it
is a young Salmon, and yet, if I were called upon to give reasons for
thinking so, I could not offer any very conclusive ones: the